The need for political parties to encourage their supporters to participate in elections came to the fore during last week’s by-elections.

The province had by-elections in the Rustenburg and Tswaing local municipalities where the ruling ANC and the DA retained their seats.

However, low voter turnout was witnessed, signalling the need for more engagement between parties and their supporters.

Independent Electoral Commission figures show that in Ward 9, Rustenburg, a paltry 17.69% voter turn-out was recorded while Ward 14, Tswaing, posted an equally low 28.13%.

ANC candidate Glen Michael Mutle got 879 of the 974 cast votes, showing 90% support. The ward has 5506 registered voters. Mutle was contesting Kgosi Walter Montoedi of the African People’s Convention (APC), Mojalefa Dyke Sekosana of Cope and Tshekisho Andrew Sebati of the UCDP.

The seat fell vacant after the death of an ANC councillor. In Tswaing, Paul Stephanus Bam of the DA scored 832 of the 861 votes cast. Representing a 96% support and convincingly beating his APC competitor Mojalefa Skosana to retain the city that was left vacant after the then DA councillor resigned.

A total of 3118 people are registered to vote in this particular ward.

Provincial ANC elections leader Hlomane Chauke said though the ruling party did not field a candidate in Tswaing, they were happy with the outcome of the by-election in Rustenburg.

“People have continued to show confidence in the ANC and we want to congratulate the newly elected councillor and impress upon him that the need to account and deliver services to the people is what makes ANC identify with the masses,” he said.

Chauke said that preparations were under way for the 2014 elections and party supporters need to be encouraged to participate in elections.

Provincial DA leader Chris Hattingh said retaining ward 14 in Tswaing was a huge achievement for his party.

“Despite the low turn-out, we managed to increase our support in some areas. For instance, in one zone, we recorded more than 100 new votes from the 11 we got in 2011. We are confident the party is progressing in our intended direction,” he said.

Hattingh said more work needed to be done to encourage people to go out and vote because democracy thrives on numbers.

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